October Is the Sunday Night of Accounting: A Year-End Bookkeeping Checklist for Interior Designers
Why Year-End Bookkeeping Starts in October
Every year around mid-October, I find myself having the same conversation with clients. The holiday installs are stacking up, everyone wants their rooms finished before they host, vendors are backordered, and your inbox is one long thread of freight updates. Somewhere in the middle of all that, the books quietly slide to the bottom of the list.
Here is how I think about it. October is the Sunday night of accounting.
My own version of Sunday night starts a little early. Every Sunday afternoon, I spend about two hours getting ready for my week. I review my kids' calendar, review my email, and I make a list of my action items. By the time Monday morning shows up, I know what matters and where I'm headed, and the whole week feels different because of it.
That is exactly the mindset I want you to bring to your business this month. January is Monday morning, and October is your chance to set yourself up to start 2027 on the right foot. The work you do on your books now isn't about January paperwork. It's about walking into the new year able to make confident financial decisions about your pricing, your markups, and which projects deserve more of your time.
If you have been telling yourself you will "deal with year-end in January," let this be your Sunday night. Here are the four things I ask our own design clients to wrap up before Thanksgiving, and the why behind each one:
1. Clear out your uncategorized transactions
An uncategorized transaction is money that moved in or out of your account without a label telling us what it was for. We set those aside in a holding spot until you, or someone on your team, tells us what they were.
Let’s take a $2,400 charge from a furniture showroom. It could be product for a client project, or it could be something you want to store away in inventory, and each one lands in a different place on your books and changes your taxes in a different way.
You remember those details best right now, while the project is fresh. By February, that charge is just a number on a statement.
Your next step: Log into your BBTB portal, answer any open questions, and add a quick note to anything we've flagged. One line is plenty. ("Smith living room sofa" works beautifully.)
2. Upload any missing bank and credit card statements
We can't reconcile an account without its statement. Reconciling just means matching what's in QuickBooks against what your bank says happened, line by line, so nothing is missing or counted twice.
The missing one is usually a business credit card you opened mid-year, or the card you only use for trade accounts and forget about until a vendor reminds you.
Your next step: Check your portal for any months we're missing and upload them as PDFs. If you opened a new account this year, tell us so we can get it connected.
3. Know which deposits you haven't earned yet
This is the one I see trip up designers most often, and it makes sense, because the money is sitting right there in your account. Say a client pays you a $30,000 deposit in November for furniture that won't be installed until March. That money is in your bank account, but until you deliver, it is still the client's money.
Accountants call this unearned revenue (sometimes "client deposits"). It shows up on your books as a liability, which is a fancy way of saying money you still owe in the form of future work or product.
It matters at year-end because your CPA will likely ask for a breakdown of which deposits belong to unfinished projects. They use that list to decide how those deposits are treated on your return, and the right answer depends on your accounting method. We advise, you and your CPA decide, and the list makes that conversation easy.
Your next step: Make a quick list of active projects with deposits and roughly where each one stands. We'll take it from there.
4. Gather your vendor invoices and sales tax records
If you sell product, you're most likely collecting sales tax on it, and your CPA will want proof of how much you collected and how much you've already paid to the state. There is a right way to handle sales tax, and it is the only way we do it.
Vendor invoices are the other half. A credit card charge tells us you spent $8,000 at a lighting supplier. The invoice tells us it was four pendants for the Johnson kitchen, plus $300 in freight. That detail is what lets us match costs to the right project and its purchase order, and show you your true margin on that project.
Your next step: Pull your sales tax filings for the year into one folder (if you are a BBTB client, this is already done for you in your Portal), and upload any vendor invoices that haven't made it to the portal yet.
Year-End Bookkeeping FAQs for Interior Designers
When should interior designers close their books for the year?
Your books can't fully close until your December statements arrive in early January. We ask our clients to have everything uploaded by the end of January. That gives us time to reconcile and gives your CPA a clean package well before tax deadlines.
Is a client deposit taxable income?
It depends on your accounting method (whether your books count income when the cash arrives or when the work is done) and how your CPA handles advance payments. That's exactly why your CPA asks for a breakdown of deposits on unfinished projects. Keep that list current and let your CPA make the call.
What does my CPA need from me at year-end?
Usually reconciled bank and credit card accounts, your profit and loss report (what you earned and spent) and your balance sheet (what you own and owe), a breakdown of client deposits, and your sales tax records. If you paid independent contractors this year, you'll also need their W-9 forms (the form that gives you their tax ID) so 1099s can go out on time. The rules changed for 2026: the 1099-NEC threshold is now $2,000 per contractor for the year, up from $600. We walk through the details in our 1099 post: https://www.businessbythebook.money/bbtb-blog/1099-info-2026.
What if my books are already behind?
Start with the oldest month and work forward. Even getting through September now makes January much lighter. And if you look at the pile and feel your shoulders creep up, that's a sign to bring in a team. That is exactly why we exist.
What This Buys You in January
When these four things are done by Thanksgiving, your Monday morning looks completely different. Instead of chasing receipts in January, we get to spend that time where we belong, at the planning table with you, looking at which projects made you money, whether your markups are doing their job, and what your 2027 pricing should be. Real numbers, not a gut feeling at midnight.
That's what a good Sunday night buys you.
That is the difference between a bookkeeper and a financial team. We are not just in the back office categorizing your bank transactions. We are right there with you.
If you are already a BBTB client, your team is a message away in the portal and can tell you exactly what is still open.
And if you want to take your Sunday night one step further, join me on Tuesday, October 27 at 2:30pm ET for our webinar, Pricing for 2027: Setting Your Rates and Next Year's Budget. Once your books are clean, this is where they start working for you. We'll talk through how to set rates you feel confident about and build a budget for the year ahead. Can't make it live? Register anyway and we'll send you the recording.
Sherry & Morgan lead Business by the Book, a women owned bookkeeping and accounting firm serving interior designers and creative businesses nationwide.
